Six fast-growing start-ups have been selected to take part in the next cohort of the NDRC programme, with companies active in supply chain, media and edtech sectors among those chosen for the accelerator.
The six enterprises include Limerick-founded edtech company Examfly, content repurposing platform Chopcast, commerce and logistics platform Tipple, DCU spin-out MoveAhead, Limerick-based digital infrastructure company Tracworx, and engineer-focused social platform Terrabyte. They were chosen from almost 300 applicants.
The accelerator, which is managed by DogPatch Labs, will run for six months. The startups receive an investment of €100,000, but the programme also focuses on mentoring, advisory services and scaling supports available to participants through Dogpatch’s network. That includes access to dedicated Entrepreneurs-In-Residence such as previous programme MD Philip Reynolds, and former global sales leader at Stripe and Salesforce Maria McMenamin. More than 40 entrepreneurs will provide mentoring sessions, with Intercom cofounder and chief technology officer Ciaran Lee, and Soapbox Labs founder and chief executive Patricia Scanlon signing up.
This is the second cohort of start-ups taking part in the programme this year; the initial phase included childcare marketplace Oogo, digital loyalty card platform Squid and B2B marketplace Arkoo.
It is also the third accelerator cohort since the programme was taken over by Dogpatch. The consortium led by the tech hub was announced in December 2020 as the winner of the €17 million five-year contract to manage start-up accelerator programmes on behalf of the State.
Former IgniteNI COO Ian Browne was also named as accelerator MD. “The past two years of NDRC under the management of Dogpatch Labs has shown the strength of Ireland’s startup ecosystem and I’m looking forward to playing a role in developing this further,” he said. “The quality of applications for this cohort was remarkable, with high potential startups coming from across the regions, from FDIs, from large corporates and increasingly from forward looking universities. All of these founders are hoping to build the high growth companies of the future. It is clear that Ireland’s talent pipeline is strong and growing, we aim to support and accelerate that talent as part of a vibrant startup ecosystem.”
